The Tinker

Chapter 96 - Gratitude

After dinner with Y/N's family, they returned home to her old apartment.

The bus ride was mostly silent, aside from Y/N asking, "Are you pissed at me?" And Katsuki responding with a quick, "Don't be stupid," And being brave enough to reach out and grab her hand.

It was a small place; only two rooms in total. One was the bathroom, and the other was a combination of a kitchen and bedroom. Next to the floor-to-ceiling window was a small mattress with no bed frame and a beanbag. Her kitchen consisted of a sink, fridge, and an oven, with only a sliver of counter space next to the sink and a single dining table and chair cramped next to the fridge.

He was beginning to understand why their new apartment had shocked her so much.

Y/N slipped off her jacket and tossed her backpack onto the dining table. "Home sweet home," She mumbled, her voice thick with sarcasm. "I'd offer you a cup of tea or some shit but my fridge and pantry are literally empty." She opened up a cabinet to verify but raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Scratch that, we have a year old bag of cinnamon gummy bears. You in?"

Bakugou smirked a bit at her joke and shrugged off his jacket too, a bit relieved to hear her talking again. He could tell Y/N wasn't ready to talk about what happened yet. "You tryna poison me?"

"Candy doesn't really go bad. Just gets hard, mostly." After ripping open the gummy bear bag she popped one into her mouth and grimaced. "Hard as a rock."

Bakugou rolled his eyes with the smallest hint of a grin before turning to face the window at the end of the room. A few seconds passed as he stared. "Pretty view."

"Yup. Pretty much the only good thing about this place. And the strays."

"Strays?"

Y/N's eyes lit up a bit with excitement and she made her way over to the opposite door next to the window and opened it slowly. "C'mere."

The rain had stopped a few hours ago and the storm left much of the surrounding area with a temporary break from pollution. If you focused hard, you might even see a few stars. Y/N's small balcony had several dollar-store plastic bowls resting near the wall and some dirty blankets– Katsuki connected the dots and realized Y/N meant stray cats when he spotted the bag of kibble.

Y/N tapped her foot against the railing 3 times, a soft clang echoing through the night. Bakugou grabbed the railing and looked down, wondering how the hell cats were supposed to get up to this height, but Y/N touched his shoulder and pointed upwards.

At the top of the building, Katsuki spotted them. A few little cats with pointy ears stared down at them curiously.

"They live up top. My neighbor built a small shelter for them so they don't get wet in the rain," Y/N explained. "Check it out. Their parkour is top notch."

Bakugou continued to squint up at the little animals in anticipation, and sure enough, they began making their way down. Using window sills, balconies, flat ladder rungs and pipes, they bounded down towards the two of them. Bakugou counted two of them, and before he knew it they were at their feet and crowding around his girlfriend.

Y/N sat down with her back against the door, gesturing for Katsuki to do the same. Almost immediately after he did so the little black one hopped into his lap and he froze.

As much as he didn't want her to, Y/N noticed his reaction and laughed. "'S okay. They don't bite."

He still didn't move an inch, instead opting for staring wide-eyed at the small feline in his lap. The cat only watched him, tilting her head slightly as her ear flicked. Katsuki was (embarrassingly) about to ask Y/N to take it off his lap, but then the thing meowed at him and pressed her paw against his chin.